Davis keen to end Luxembourg pain

11 October 2013 11:16

Northern Ireland captain Steven Davis is setting his sights on victory over Azerbaijan after admitting footage of his side's last outing proved tough to watch.

After defeating Russia in August and running Portugal close before a 4-2 defeat, an abject display against Luxembourg last month came as something of an unwelcome surprise.

Despite taking the lead at the Stade Josy Barthel, Michael O'Neill's side were fully deserving of a 3-2 loss against their lowly hosts.

They have the chance to make amends at the Bakcell Arena on Friday night, but have already been forced to confront their earlier shortcomings and it is not an experience Davis wants to repeat.

"I watched the game by myself when I got back from Luxembourg and when we met up this time we watched edited clips of the game," he said.

"We've watched the footage back to see what went wrong and it wasn't easy viewing. It was a hard one to take for everybody. It was a hard result to go back to your club with.

"There are a lot of things we have built on and have done well recently - team shape, being difficult to beat, being good in possession. The things we've done against the likes of Russia and Portugal sort of went out of the window last time and we became disjointed.

"That's football, sometimes it throws up nights like that, but we want to go out and show it was a bit of a blip.

"Hopefully we can show our real qualities in the next two games."

Davis, who has been performing well for high-flying Southampton in recent weeks, is immune from O'Neill's axe but the same is not true of everyone who lined up in Luxembourg.